We finally managed to get everyone together for some family photos. The only one missing is Ivan’s dad! We spent the early evening playing in the backyard of Ivan’s brother’s home and then we finished the night with some sushi and gorgeous entertainment in the form of Mika and her little cousin Maria-Renee. It kinda sucks knowing we’ll be so far away from this soon!

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Remember when we first arrived in Mexico?  It seems like forever ago. We arrived to Ivan’s mum’s home which was overflowing with Ivan’s mum, his brother, his brother’s wife, their 4 year old daughter,  few week old son and all their belongings (these guys have a lot of stuff!). The place was a crazy house. For two nights, Ivan’s mum lent us her tiny double bed and after we finally put Mika to sleep we would lie awake to the sounds of a tiny colicky newborn screaming his little lungs out. After 24 hours of being in transit, this was less than ideal.

So you can imagine how relieved and grateful we were when we were told that we could stay (rent-free!) in an empty 2-story 3 bedroom home with a courtyard in a pretty nice neighbourhood. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the kindness of these people who lent us their home (and Ivan’s brother sorting it all out for us), we probably would have left Mexico a lot earlier at a time when we probably wouldn’t have been so ready to leave. But they did lend us their home and we did stick around for longer and we have some glorious memories of that home. Lazy days in the hot sun, reading my Spanish books, paddling in our tiny pool, days of family naps, scrabble and card games, evening walks to the lagoon, cooking meals in our kitchen, climbing the stairs with baby, hanging up laundry in the courtyard…It’s amazing how many memories can be created from only 4 months!

This is the family who lent us their home. The husband wasn’t around for the shoot, but this is Adriana and her two beautiful little boys. We’re so grateful for their kindness! (Oh and it worked out perfectly – we’re moving to Seattle at the end of the month!!)

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Looking after a 1 year old is not as easy as I’ve been under the impression it is.

Huh?

Well as you’ll know if you follow this blog, Ivan and I have spent the majority of the last 16 months chasing our families around the globe. We’ve been lucky enough to have lived with my mum and dad and close to many of our closest friends for the first 8 months of Mika’s life and then for the last 4 months we’ve been living minutes away from Ivan’s entire family in Mexico with Ivan’s mum coming to help care for Mika every single day. It has been amazing.

And now, all of a sudden it’s just me and Mika from 8 til late in a city where I know less than a handful of people and I can actually start to appreciate how much work it all is. It’s not bad work, it’s just a logistical thing rather – like I have to think strategically about when and how I’m going to take my shower, cook lunch, go toilet (?!), head out for a run, shower after our run (or not?), visit a coffee shop etc. It’s cool, we’re on like day 4 and we’ve totally got it down. But until the other day when I was busting to go toilet and Mika was all like ‘hey mum look i’m climbing the stairs!’ and I was all like ‘woah, can you hold on like two minutes?’ I had never really even considered it could be an issue. And the other day we went running together. Mika chilling out in our awesome extreme rental jogging stroller (long story) and me getting my sweat on and then we get home and she’s all buzzing and awake and I realise that there is no way I’m getting a shower in now until Ivan gets home. No big deal, but just…something I never thought about before as there has always been someone nearby who could watch her for me!

So now I can join the mums who actually care for their babies on their own club rather than the ‘I get so much support that I somehow still have time to go running on my own, cook gourmet lunches, shower and style my hair each day’ club. Does that make me more legit?

Working out and using our lonely self-timer on the camera makes us pretty much awesome.

Sometimes I feel like I haven’t been a legitimate mama until now. How can I compare with women who are alone with their babies from 7 til 7 each day from birth? They’re like the epitome of strong and amazing. I dunno – surely I would have adapted and managed just fine if I’d needed to – but I feel like we had the option to take the help and it’s honestly made things so enjoyable and easy for us, I can’t imagine it any other way. At first I was skeptical about it all. When I was pregnant, the last thing I wanted was to be around extended family and have them all up in our space. But now? There’s plenty of time for us to have our own space. We’ll end up settling down somewhere eventually and chances are it won’t be NZ or Mexico and we won’t have the support that we’ve had for the last year. So the time that Mika has had with both my parents and Ivan’s is really important to us and we’re so glad that it was possible.

I feel like I’m trying to justify my decisions here! I know I don’t need to justify anything to anyone and I know that everyone has different experiences and situations. I just want to share my positive experience of having our family and friends really close to us during the first year of Mika’s life incase there’s anyone out there who is wondering ‘do I want to be close to my family or my in-laws while I’m pregnant/our baby is little?’ because we could have easily decided the other way but I’m so glad we didn’t!

If anyone else has a positive experience of receiving great support (from family or friends) during their child’s first year I’d love to hear about it!!

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We spent all of Friday packing our bags. Well, I spent the entire Friday packing, Ivan spent the day running around tying up loose ends with paying bills and organising things and Mika spent the day climbing through boxes and swimming in her paddling pool under the watch of her abuelita (grandma). It’s fair to say that things worked out well for Mika while Ivan and I felt just a bit miserable that we couldn’t be playing with her all day.

To cut a long story into 24 words, we were told (on Friday) that instead of leaving our house on Sunday like we had planned, we had to get out on Friday.

Strange, yes, but we had no choice. So after a very long day, a very long night and a few tears, we set up camp at Ivan’s mum’s home.

Today we just found out that we are flying to Seattle on Wednesday and I am impossibly excited whilst at the same time feeling a bit annoyed at myself for also feeling a little exhausted. Traveling is awesome, don’t get me wrong, but on little to no sleep, with working full time at the moment and with a 1 year old, sometimes just the thought of a 3 hour bus, 2 plane rides and around 12 hours in transit is just overwhelming! But I’m just being silly really, because I find the airport ridiculously exciting and I love being in new places and I am so excited to be in such a beautiful city. I’m just exhausted right now and it’s after midnight and I’ve been working on a silly problem for a website we’re building and it’s driving me nuts.

I was debating about posting some of my favourite links or just some photos of Mika and her favourite people. The favourite people won.

With her 2 godmamas doing crosswords

Being fed by Oma

Playing trains with my friend cousin Jack

Hangin out with godpapa Red (we’re still working on those names)

My Uncle Vinny

Uncle Pablo

Aunty Anita

Reading with Grandpa

Oh OK and here are some fun links I’ve collected over the week:

The ultimate roof-top garden (my hero!)

Hilarious tips for single women in 1938. (Found via Courtney’s blog)

An awesome DIY chalkboard tutorial.

Eating red meat increases chances of death.

Never fly with your bags again!

These wedding dresses

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The other day my friend and I were chatting about life. She has just recovered from a nasty illness (totally more nasty than you are even imagining) and I had just returned from a funeral.

She was elated, joyful and high on life. She wanted to high-five the clouds and kiss the ground and dance with everyone in the street. She wanted to take deep breathes and savour the feeling of being alive. She wanted to thank her arms and her legs and her eyes and her lungs and her amazing body for doing what it does.

And there I was. Having returned from a funeral I too probably should have been high on life, but I wasn’t. I was petrified. At the funeral I saw what losing a loved one looks like. I saw painfully real emotions and sadness that I just don’t feel ready for. Every second that passes, my heart feels a little more love for Mika. I have no idea how this is possible, but it’s true. So what does that look like when Mika is 5? Or 10? Or 20? That is a lot of love.

I honestly never quite understood the saying about how when you have a kid your heart lives outside of you (or something like that). But now I totally get it. My heart is hanging out in the form of a little baby girl right now. And at the moment I’m with her most moments of every day, I can see my heart and it’s safe and happy. But I won’t be able to keep watch over it forever, and that scares me. No, wait, it terrifies me.

I feel like I’ve pushed this massive stone (a metaphor for giving birth perhaps?) and now it’s slowly gathering speed and it’s unstoppable. So naturally, my strongest desire is to stop time. Let’s put everyone in a big plastic bubble and freeze time.

Gah, I’m not stupid, I know that’s ridiculous. And I know that it should be even more motivation to seize life and enjoy each moment, like really really enjoy each moment. And to cherish relationships. And make those phone calls and write those letters. And to get excited because we are ALIVE and we are AMAZING and we are YOUNG and we are BEAUTIFUL!

Go tell someone how amazing they are to you. You never know when they might not be around. Thank your body for being so good to you – you never know when things might not be so easy.

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